Seize The Moments

Last Friday, I was sitting in a coffee shop with some teens studying God's Word, when I realized the importance of seizing the moment.

I have a deep respect for single parents and an equally deep respect for kids of single parents! Having been married for 23 years and raising two amazing kids with my husband, I think about all the one on one time we got to share with our kids. Those were special trips to the movies, a night away in a nearby town or dinner and shopping just the 2 of us. I loved and cherished EVERY one of those moments but I also valued the times when my husband would take the kids so I could have ME TIME! The best part was that there was ALWAYS someone there that could take the kids so Chris or I could have that me time. A spouse is in one way, a built in babysitter.

Single moms and single dads don't have that luxury, that built in babysitter. Every trip to the movies or dinner out is one on one time. And those kids of single parents don't get that special one on one time with just mom and then just dad. They get it with one or the other but never both.

In the coffee shop last Friday, I asked the gals and guys what they were doing for Spring Break. Some had great plans but some had no plans at all. "My mom will be working so we're not going anywhere" or "my dad can't take off so I am spending Spring Break at home". That's when God prompted me to SEIZE THE MOMENT. "Let's take a girls trip and go hiking in the mountains", I suggested. They jumped on the idea. We started planning and by the end of the day we had a quick, mini vacation planned for the following Thursday.

The excitement and love in these girl's voices made my heart melt. The appreciation expressed by the single moms and single dad was well worth any monetary or time sacrifice I was making. God has blessed me to be a blessing. He calls us to take care of the widows, orphans and the poor. I believe He also calls us to help the single parents in our world. Divorce was not an issue 2000 years ago but today it is. I know single parents would be included in that scripture if Jesus wrote it today!

What moment can you SEIZE today? I have found that the best medicine for depression, anger, worry or grief is to take the focus off of me and pour into someone else. Who can you help today? What single parent, child of a single parent, widow, orphan, struggling family, etc, can you bless today? Lets be known as a generation who is unbelievably generous! I love you all and pray that you are all blessed beyond measure!

Melissa

You Never Know When You Will See The Fruit

Day to day, the same routine. Go to work, come home, go to sleep, do it again. Then... you get a text, a phone call or a visit. Something is happening and you get to be a part of it!

Work was great as always. (Thank God I get to do something I LOVE and call it a job!) I was sitting at home contemplating dinner when I got a text message that made my heart so happy. A sweet girl (21), who I have known since she was 7, sent me a text that said she was thinking about getting baptized but didn't know how to go about it. I was so happy. Happy for her, her mom and dad, her siblings, her future children... this is a generation changing decision! Even after years of not talking to her, she chose to contact me to talk about her BIG decision. Thank you Lord that I got to have that conversation with Ash. I am nothing special, and know that wholeheartedly, but this was a harvest for seeds planted over 13 years ago.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9

There are many times in life when it feels like what we are doing doesn't matter. It feels like you are making no progress, not making a difference. I'm here to tell you, DON'T GIVE UP! When you least expect it, you too will see the fruit of seeds planted long ago.

You may be in a season where you keep getting hit in the face with bad news. Don't stop doing good. Don't stop helping others. Don't stop trusting. Don't stop forgiving or loving. Tomorrow may be your day to reap a harvest from seeds you have been planting; just like today was mine.

I will continue to WAIT, TRUST & FOLLOW. Never giving up. Loving others and most importantly loving GOD and being obedient to Him! I hope you will too!

Love you guys! I am so proud of you Ash! 

Spontaneous... Sometimes It's Ok To Not Have A Plan!

Spontaneous... Sometimes It's Ok To Not Have A Plan! That one statement is hard for a type A personality like mine to say, let alone do! On Friday at 3:00, a crazy idea crossed my mind and I ran with it. I wanted to surprise my husband with a getaway and I decided that I would do it without a plan. By 4:00 we were packed and on our way to the Cumberland Mountains in east Tennessee.

Honestly, I think my spontaneity impressed my hubby more than the trip but either way, I am glad I did it.

Sometimes in life, we miss out on opportunities to just enjoy living because we focus on having everything figured out before we do anything.  In a lot of life situations, planning is critical, but not in everything. You need to plan a budget, plan for retirement and plan for college or marriage but not everything has to have a plan.

Within one hour of leaving our driveway, I begin to have anxiety about my lack of a plan. I worried about spending money I hadn't planned on. I worried about leaving town without letting my son know we wouldn't be home. (Don't call child protective services, he is not a child. He is 22) I had to remind myself to relax and just enjoy the next couple of days. 

We stayed in a hotel we had never stayed at, in a town we had only driven through 1 time before. I didn't even know if there were good restaurants close! For the record, there were no "good" restaurants but we had the time of our life people watching, while eating the $5.99 breakfast buffet at Shoney's at 10:00pm.

We drove to the top of the highest mountain, we fed llamas and ate lunch with our daughter and her fiance'. The best part of our trip was I had no plan. No plan meant no pressure to meet deadlines and no expectations of how our time should be spent. It was perfect.

As I look back on this spontaneous trip, I realize that my need for a plan feeds my need for control. Can you relate? What can you do to exercise the inner spontaneity in you? Sometimes, it's okay to not have a plan! 

Live life to the fullest because no one is promised tomorrow. Love God and Love people with all your heart. Shake things up every once in awhile. You might even like the freedom you feel in not having to have EVERYTHING figured out!

Love you guys. Please pray for my pastor who had another scan done to make sure he is still cancer free. His results come back Tuesday or Wednesday. Our God and His plans and purposes are bigger than any cancer diagnosis!

What Character Traits Do You Value Most?

As a young girl, I had a group of friends that I did everything with. We walked to school together, played softball, had sleepovers... Those girls were my introduction to the importance of BEST FRIENDS. I needed them in my life and they needed me. It felt good. To this day, I am still friends with many of them. 36 years and over 700 miles can't break that bond. We are loyal, real and resilient.

As an adult, I have had many friends. Some were for a season and others for a lifetime. What makes the difference? Why can time and distance separate some friendships yet others survive regardless of circumstances? That's a great question. I think it has everything to do with shared values.

Have you ever met someone and instantly knew you would be friends for life? I have been blessed to have that happen on more than one occasion. A couple of them are because the person was so much like me it was almost scary. We just "got" each other. Others, the person couldn't be more different from outward appearances. I'm not real "girly" but a few of my BEST FRIENDS are all girly. One is even rightfully nicknamed Bling!

I don't think it depends on appearance or personality or even where we live. I think it depends on the character traits or values that we value most. God gave all of us certain values or character traits that make us who we are.  For me, the three that I value most are loyalty, authenticity and resilience.  I remain loyal no matter what and expect the same from my friends. I don't care about being perfect as long as I remain authentic and that is what I look for in others. Life is hard and I know that God put a resilience in me because He knew my resilience would inspire others. I tend to love and treasure people who have had to be over-comers/fighters, resilient in tough life circumstances.

Every BEST FRIEND I have, man or woman, possess those character traits. We've all heard, "never judge a book by it's cover", it's all about the content! 

I love all my friends, even those who don't call me "friend" anymore, but when I find those instant, soul touching, BEST FRIENDS, I know immediately that they will be friends for life. Life circumstances can not separate us, moving across the country, having children, not having children, nothing can separate us because like me, they value loyalty, authenticity and resilience.

What character traits do you value most? Do your BEST FRIENDS possess those traits?  Does your spouse posses those traits? I bet they do! When you share values it makes a difference in your relationship.

Submission is truly tested when we DON'T agree!

I had a long trip to Ohio ahead of me. I had never driven this route on my own, so I typed my destination address in the good old GPS, and set out on my way. The first half of my trip was uneventful. I followed the GPS directions to a T. They all made sense! It was when the crazy thing told me to head south on the highway that I first questioned it's sanity. I'm not a geography major, but I could find NO logical reason to travel south when Ohio is most definitely north of Tennessee. The first thought that went through my head was, "you are surely mistaken", so I went with my own logic and headed North on that highway. I was privileged to listen to the GPS tell my every 10 seconds to "make a legal U-Turn" for the next 5 miles until I decided, "Fine, I'll try going your way for a little while." Much to my surprise, 2 miles from where I originally rebelled, the trusty thing had me get on my final road and head East. Imagine that, the GPS knew the right way to go even if it defied my feeble logic!

In life, there are times when God directs our paths in directions that go against logic. In directions that we don't agree with. It is in those moments that our submission to God's plan is truly tested. It is easy to submit when we agree but true submission is doing what is asked when we don't necessarily agree. 

This starts early in life, definitely in our teen years. You know the times. When our friends are going to that party and we get that sick feeling in our stomach that says we shouldn't go. It's our choice whether we "listen" to that feeling and not go, or rebel and go anyways. What about when we know that the "cool" boy that skips school all the time is not boyfriend material but we decide to date him anyways. He may break our heart or even worse take our purity. These are the GPS moments in our teen years when listening to our brains feels better, but listening to our spirit is what we need to do.

As adults, the GPS in our spirit may be pointing us to leave that job that is comfortable because God has other plans for us. It may be that our husband feels led to get out of debt and sale our "dream" home but we scream, fight and throw a tantrum until we get our way. We spend the next 5 years struggling financially with the GPS screaming "make a legal U-Turn" all because we allowed our emotions to control our submission or lack there of.

It is ALWAYS better to submit than to rebel. Submission takes on many facets, wives should submit to their husbands, children should submit to their parents, we should ALL submit to those who are in authority to us such as our boss or pastor. Most importantly, if you are a Christian, you should submit to the will of God over your life.

What if, like me, you rebel and don't submit? MAKE A LEGAL U-TURN! It is never too late to get on the right route!

Love you guys!

When Tragedy Strikes... Families Pull Together ... Why Does It Take A Tragedy?

I don't know about in your family, but in mine, our biggest reunions happen at family funerals. I have spent the last few days at my husband's mom's house surrounded by many, many relatives, some of which I had never met in my 25 years in the family. I wish I could say that some amazing family member planned, organized and executed a giant FAMILY REUNION but unfortunately, it took the death of mammaw to bring us all together. Why does it take a tragedy to bring a family together?

As I was lying in bed this morning, I began to think about life and how trials and tragedies are what propels us to reach out. When you get a bad diagnosis at the doctor, you reach out for prayer and support. When a family member passes away, we reach out for comfort from our friends and family. When you lose a job, your home burns down, so on and so on, this is when we do the reaching out or reach out to those affected by one of these tragedies.

We do the same thing with God. When we are hurting is when we really reach out for God. He wants us to reach out to Him all the time. When things are going good we build our relationship with Christ so that when things turn bad, we TRUST Him to be there. It's natural to spend more time with Christ when tragedy strikes, and that is okay, but don't neglect spending time with Him during the easy times.

The same holds true in our earthly relationships. We need to be intentional to reach out during the "good" times, to build the TRUST and bond, so that in the bad times, we have those people to reach out to. How can we be intentional in reaching out when we are forced by tragedy to do so?

1. Plan a trip to visit when you don't "have to".
2. Make a phone call and just visit to visit.
3. Go to lunch, dinner, or coffee.
4. Send a card or letter. A hand written note is priceless.

I love my friends and family dearly but I will admit that I do not do a good job of this all of the time. I am going to be more intentional. I hope you will be too! Love you all!

Why Are We Picky Beggars?

As I was eating my lunch today, my little chihuahua sat at my feet begging for just one bite. I usually don't give in, but today his little eyes pulled at my heart, so I tossed him a fry. He ran over to it with such enthusiasm until he sniffed it. That little brat left the fry laying on the floor and came back to my feet to beg some more. I chuckled at the thought and tore off a piece of hamburger. I barley pulled my fingers back in time before he gulped that meat down without even chewing. Crazy little dog!

This got me thinking about myself and when I pray or "beg" God. I imagine God sitting up in heaven, looking at me at His feet, and thinking you crazy kid,  I have blessed you with so much but here you sit "begging" for something better.

I want to be content with what God has given me in this season of life. Don't get me wrong, I believe that our awesome God blesses us more than we could ever think or imagine. The problem is, I can be picky in what I receive as a blessing.

Sometimes the situations in life may not feel like a blessing but I want to start living a life where I look at all situations with a positive attitude. Often the trials, or fries in life, turn out to be God's biggest blessing. Let's join to together and thank God in all things. Good, bad, exciting, boring... whatever, they are all blessings. Each minute, each moment, each celebration, even each trial is a gift.

I want God's will for my life and for yours. I want to be thankful in all things. Let's not be picky beggars!

I love you guys!